A British Columbia mapping company says it has the technology to predict the kind of devastation that a natural disaster could wreak upon a city and its population.

The technology is being used around the world, and could save lives if implemented in a disaster preparedness program, according to the company.

Using information from aerial photos or satellite imagery, Vancouver-based Aero Geometrics creates topographic maps and 3-dimensional imagery, illustrating what can happen to an area in a worst-case disaster scenario.

A computer model of Miami, Fla. shows how quickly a major flood would swallow the city's downtown core.

"Virtually all of Miami would be gone in no time," company president Tim Daly told CTV Vancouver.

Six months ago, the company made a presentation in Biloxi, Miss., yet no one there took the bait.

"They didn't have the wisdom to say, yeah, we could have used that," said Daly, adding that his technology would also have helped New Orleans.

"We could easily simulate breaking the levee and watching the water flood in, and where it would go."

Aero Geometrics' clients include governments, mining and forestry sectors -- and even the U.S. army, which the company advises as to what terrain soldiers could expect to tread upon in Baghdad.

Warning for B.C.

In his home province, Daly is urging civic leaders to apply his technology in the Lower Mainland, in light of the fact that B.C. is overdue for a major earthquake.

The province's coastal areas would be vulnerable to devastating floods if tremors were to causes breaks in the dyke and levee systems.

A model Daly presented to CTV Vancouver shows how Garibaldi Lake, about 35 km. north of Squamish, could be engulfed in a big flood. The waters would then rush down the Squamish River and take out the entire town.

The company's images predict dire consequences for Richmond, B.C., as well.

The city, situated on the province's Pacific coast one metre above sea level, is located on a floodplain.

Daly said that if a tremor were to break one of the city's levee systems and large waves punch through: "All you need is for the bridges to get wiped out and that place starts flooding ... and people don't even know where the high ground is."

Currently, Richmond has a comprehensive system of dykes on Lulu Island in order to protect itself from flooding due to high tides or river floods. Its dykes are built to a level two feet above the highest ever-recorded water level (in 1894) at the location on the Fraser Basin.

This, according to the City of Richmond's website, meets the provincial standard.

Based on a report by CTV Vancouver's Janet Dirks